Programs

CLGS develops and sustains a variety of programs to meet the needs of academic, faith, and activist communities. CLGS is committed to education and training that will strengthen relationships between these communities and their work in the broader movements for social and religious transformation. Our programs are divided into four main areas: community building, advocacy, education, and research.

Community Building

Racial Justice Roundtable Project: The CLGS Racial Justice Roundtables facilitate community building among LGBTQ people of color active in various faith traditions and brings together both local and national leaders to meet together and discuss strategies for outreach and social change. The roundtables produce culturally relevant resources and facilitate workshops and trainings around the country that encourage faith communities to affirm the dignity and spiritual wholeness of LGBTQ people of faith and illuminate the intersections of racial, economic, and LGBTQ justice issues.

Transgender Religious Roundtable Project: The Transgender Roundtable supports trans-identified clergy and faith leaders, creates and provides spiritual and religious resources for transgender people that affirm them wholeheartedly, and supports religious communities, churches, seminaries, and other faith-based organizations in their affirmation of the full dignity of people of all genders.

Bay Area Coalition of Welcoming Congregations: Brings together faith leaders from a variety of religious traditions in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area to strength the public religious voice of welcome and inclusion for LGBTQ people.

Bi-Annual Lecture Series: As part of the Center’s work in fostering and promoting the latest research and scholarship in LGBTQ-related religious concerns, CLGS hosts two lectures during the academic year – the Georgia Harkness Lecture in the fall and the John E. Boswell Lecture in the spring.  These lectures are free and open to the public. Unless otherwise noted, all lectures take place on the campus of Pacific School of Religion Campus in Berkeley, California.

Conferences, Workshops, & Trainings: CLGS sponsors lectures, conferences, trainings and panel discussions on the PSR campus that make the latest LGBTQ and theological scholarship accessible to the wider bay area communities. Our staff also presents sessions at national and local conferences, convocations and gatherings throughout the year. Our regularly sponsored conferences include the Multi-Faith Transgender Religious Summit and the Souls A’ Fire Convening on Black Queer Theology. To learn about upcoming engagements  view our Upcoming Events Page…

Advocacy (Current Projects)

International LGBTQ Advocacy Project: CLGS is partnering with local bay area congregations and community organizers to develop a congregation-based support system for LGBTQ refugees and asylees in the Bay Area. CLGS is also researching and exploring how to expand our mission to advocate for LGBTQ issues globally.

Liberating Religious Liberty Campaign: CLGS is partnering with national organizations to address the ways in which the concept of religious liberty is being used to further discrimination in recent RFRA policy battles. We are working to develop and amplify an accurate and theologically based perspective of what religious liberty is and how it should be used, including the case for why religious liberty should not be used as a license to discriminate.

Ending Conversion Therapy Campaign: CLGS is partnering with the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) #BornPerfect Campaign on the role of progressive faith communities in dismantling the harmful practices of conversion therapy, these practices have long been debunked by mental health professionals as both ineffective and damaging.

Education

Certificate of Sexuality and Religion at Pacific School of Religion: On the PSR campus, online, and in experimental satellite locations, CLGS teaches and administers a professional course of study designed to enhance the advocacy skills for the LGBT community of those working with communities of faith. ..

Certificate of Gender, Sexuality & The Bible at Pacific School of Religion: CLGS is partnering with PSR’s Theological Education for Leadership program to offer this new online course of study for pastors, religious professionals, lay leaders and anyone interested in deepening their knowledge on the topic. Six highly engaging, sensitive, and community-minded monthly online sessions bring participants into direct conversation with seminary faculty, faith leaders, and each other.

Living OutFront Curriculum Project: The CLGS Curriculum Project responds to the ongoing need for congregation-based education and training at the intersection of gender, sexuality and religion, especially with a view toward encouraging and facilitating the full inclusion of LGBTQ people in faith communities and empowering those same communities to work for LGBTQ social justice in the wider society.

Research

The CLGS Archives ProjectThe CLGS Archives Project seeks to obtain, preserve, and make available the papers of significant individuals and organizations in the history of religion and LGBT issues in American society.-Together with the LGBT Religious Archives Network, the CLGS Archive Project is the leading online resource for materials on LGBT religious movements and figures.

The CLGS Book Series: In partnership with Pilgrim Press, CLGS has developed publications addressing areas of concern to LGBTQ people of faith, especially in Christian congregational ministry. Publications Include: Trans-Gendered: Theology, Ministry, and Communities of Faith and Ministry Among God’s Queer Folk.